Parliament rejects opposition bill on national security

Parliament on Wednesday rejected the National Security Bill submitted by Maduvvari MP Adam Shareef, who represents the opposition coalition.

During Wednesday's sitting, 42 out of the 51 MPs who participated in the vote rejected the bill, while 11 voted in favour of accepting the bill. 

Shareef said that the reason for submitting a bill to defend the national security of the Maldives and implement the policies required for this goal was due to the increase in the number of incidents that threaten national security.

The purpose of the bill include:

Shareef had on Tuesday sent a letter to Speaker Mohamed Nasheed expressing his concern over the decision by the ruling MDP's parliamentary group which has a super majority in the parliament to dismiss the bill.

In the letter, Shareef had said:

Shareef described MDP's decision to dismiss the bill "without any basis" as an "uncivilised attempt to silence opposition members in the parliament”.

"It is not responsible to misuse the supermajority. He also noted that it is mandatory for members of the parliament to be people who welcome strong opinions since their work is linked to the aspirations of the people," he said.

Shareef also noted that MDP MPs had also made good, constructive statements on the bill.

While Shareef praised the debate contexts from MDP MPs, it became clear that there were differences of opinion among MDP MPs over the bill. While some MPs criticised Adam Shareef, others called for the bill to be forwarded to the committee for review.